Wednesday, June 14

Grotto Su Marmuri

Wednesday’s forecast called for rain so we planned to visit Grotto Su Marmuri — the largest cave in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. Also just a mile or two from where we were staying. It was rainy and stormy so perfect for indoor activities — especially with my burned hand. The cave is totally worth the stair climbing and 12 euro charge to get in. It is huge — very impressive and the tour guide was great, explaining everything in both Italian and English.

The cave also has a really beautiful restaurant that serves traditional Sardinian food — we had culurgiones, carasao (sardinian flatbread), roasted meats, pomodoro salad, seadas (delicious large ravioli filled w ricotta and served with honey), … and of course wine.

When we arrived back at the AirBnB, Jess saw a message from one of our good friends saying his wife saw the photos of my hand and she used to work in a burn unit. She encouraged us to seek medical assistance just to make sure the hand and skin would be okay. Many complications can occur after the burn, not just skin but tendons and ligaments, nerves, oil and sweat glands, etc. Jess found a clinic in a nearby town called Lanusei, and Alex and Becky drove us the 45m winding roads to get there. We arrived and they made us mask up and took me back right away, Jess had to stay in the waiting area. The hospital was old and compared to the modern medical environments we’re used to in Dallas and Denver, it was even more unfamiliar and difficult to figure out the navigation. The intake doctor or nurse had google translate up as she took down my information. Thank goodness for google translate — there was only one person who spoke English. I don’t know that Lanusei is a tourist destination so it’s probably not something people need to know. When it came time for them to inspect my burn, they seemed convinced that it was first and maybe second-degree burns. I typed into my google translate that my thumb was insensitive to touch and a friend saw photos and was concerned I might be have some third degree burn areas. They discussed this amongst themselves and then told me they were going to consult another facility. A few minutes later they asked if I could visit the hospital in Sassari, about 2.5 hours away. I said yes and they said I had an appointment at 11:15a on Thursday (the next morning).

I think I slept a little better knowing I was going to see a burn specialist but was then confronted with “what ifs” — what if I needed a skin graft? What if they don’t diagnose it properly and I get an infection? At least I was about to be seen by a doctor who is familiar with burns.

Sassari — Thursday, June 14

Alex graciously offered to drive us to Sassari — he, Becky, Jess and I were in the car by 8am. The distance is maybe 120 miles but took 2.5 hours — the winding mountain roads out of Ulassai makes the drives a long one. The most difficult part of the drive was getting out of Ulassai, google maps did not know how to find the least stressful way out with the tiny roads so we were determined to figure this out before driving through town again!

The hospital is in the south side of the city, close to our entry point and we quickly made our way in about 20m early. We struggled to figure out where to go and finally found our way to the Centro Ustione (Burn Center). At least this time Jess was allowed to come with me which was comforting. We waited about 10 min and were called into a room with two doctors and about three nurses. The primary doctor was quite a character — I had already written and used google translate to translate all the information about what had happened and my questions into italian to speed up the process, and make sure we had something down in writing in case we didn’t have data to use translation on our phones. He read through the info, they took the bandages off from the Lanusei hospital and inspected my hand. He referred back to my phone and said, “Your skin is going to hell.” Jess and I looked at eachother worried and perplexed… The doctor saw our confused faces and repeated his statement slower with more effort on pronunciation, “your skin, it’s going to hell, nodding with reassurance.” He pointed to my phone and pointed to my question about if it was going to heal. I realized the misunderstanding and said, “Oh, HEAL! Thank goodness, okay!” We all had a good laugh about that one.

He popped the large blisters to show the healthy red flesh underneath, they applied a thick layer of cream and re-bandaged my hand. “Come back on Saturday at 4 and we will re-clean and put a special cream on your hand.”

They handed us a small appointment card and we were on our way. We collected Alex and Becky from the hospital cafe (which was a nice coffee shop) and went to find some lunch. The whole visit took about 30m.

The drive home was a bit quicker as we figured out that the highway wasn’t actually closed, just under construction so we ignored Google Maps’ directions and took the main roads.

Friday, June 17

On Friday we went back up to Canyon Sa Tappara and visited the last area to the northeast for Jess, Steve, and Alex to hop on some the 5b and 5c routes. The location was spectacular as it was on the edge of the rock, as I found a good vantage point for photos I could see across the valley to Gairo and beyond out to the water. To the right I could see the other side of the small canyon. I wish I had a better camera/lens for this! The route was short so I sat in the sun and took photos of all three as they made their way up the arete/edge of the rock.

After another visit to Fico Bistrot Atypical, we went for a short hike up one of the roads on the south side of Ulassai, close to the Torre dei Venti. Beautiful views all around but the highlight was two teeny tiny kittens that ran out of the brush when we walked by. Soon a handsome and very friendly male cat joined as well. The male and tiny orange and white cat followed us for another quarter mile or so up the hill. We turned around and on the way back when we met back up with the grey and white we decided to run so they wouldn’t follow us and get separated from their missing mother (they were so tiny I imagine they were not weaned?). I’m sure it was quite a sight to see three adults trying to outrun some kittens!